The Shoemaker and STUDY GUIDE the Christmas Elves THE SHOEMAKER AND THE CHRISTMAS ELVES Music, Book, and Lyrics by Paul Deiss PLAY SYNOPSIS TEACHER RESOURCES Two elves are secretly sent to work for a poor cobbler until he does Based on the Grimm Brothers something nice for them. If he tale The Shoemaker and the does, the elves will become true Elves, this play and study guide were produced in support of Christmas elves and be sent to the teaching of the Virginia work for Santa at the North Pole. Standards of Learning in Family Ties, Folk Tales, Language Arts, Not knowing how to make shoes, Literary Classic, Biography, the Christmas elves do what Music, Reading, Writing, History, they do best: make toy dolls for and Character Development. children. Using the cobbler’s leather scraps, the elves busily make dolls for the cobbler and his AT THE LIBRARY wife to sell in their shop. Grimm’s Fairy Stories: The Brothers Grimm Classic Over time, the cobbler and his wife Collection by The Brothers Grimm become rich and no longer need Grimm’s Complete Fairy Tales the help of the elves, but the elves by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm can’t leave until their kindness has been repaid. One night, the cobbler and his ON THE WEB wife discover the Christmas elves The Elves and the Shoemaker asleep in their kitchen. They realize americanliterature.com/author/ that it is the elves who have helped the-brothers-grimm/fairy-tale/ them during their time of need and the-elves-and-the-shoemaker decide to return their kindness by Biography: 5 Facts About the making each of the elves a new Brothers Grimm pair of shoes. The elves awake to biography.com/news/brothers- see their new shoes and rejoice grimm-facts that they can now become World of Tales: Stories for Santa’s elves! Children from around the World worldoftales.com/Brothers_ Grimm.html TOUR.VIRGINIAREP.ORG ©2018 Virginia Repertory Theatre THE SHOEMAKER AND THE CHRISTMAS ELVES | 1 The Brothers Grimm STUDY GUIDE Jacob and Wilhelm came from a family with nine children. History only remembers two of the brothers Grimm, but there were actually several. LITTLE-KNOWN FACTS ABOUT Their birth home was destroyed in THE BROTHERS GRIMM World War II. When visitors go to Once upon a time, over 200 years ago, the birthplace to see the plaque and there were two German brothers named statue of the brothers Grimm, they Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. The brothers are actually across the street from worked as lawyers and librarians, and later the home where they were born, as on became university professors. In their the original was destroyed. free time, they had a really interesting hobby — collecting fairy tales! In those days, there was no television, radio or internet, so people gathered together in The Brothers Grimm also created the evenings to hear storytellers tell tales a German dictionary. They laid like Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel. the foundation for a humongous German dictionary that was The brothers liked nothing more than completed over 120 years later. traveling all around Europe and listening to local storytellers tell their fairy tales. Then, they wrote them down in a big The German Fairy Tale Route is book for everyone to enjoy. Jacob and a tourist attraction that includes Wilhelm Grimm are best known for their all of the fairy tales and events in collection of fairy tales, but there’s so the lives of the Brothers Grimm. much more to their story. From getting It goes from Bremerhaven on the kicked out of work at a college, to writing north German coast to Hanau in a dictionary, there are so many interesting the middle of Germany. and little-known facts about the Grimm brothers. Read on to learn more about this talented pair. Most fairy tales begin with the words “Once upon a time...”. In German, this is “Es war einmal...”. TOUR.VIRGINIAREP.ORG ©2018 Virginia Repertory Theatre THE SHOEMAKER AND THE CHRISTMAS ELVES | 2 Backstage STUDY GUIDE THE PLAYWRIGHT’S JOB MATCHING Playwrights are responsible for Match the following adaptations to their original stories: writing the play. What they write tells the actors what to say on stage. ORIGINAL ADAPTATION Some playwrights adapt stories so that they can be performed on stage Cinderella The Horned Toad Prince for new audiences. When a playwright adapts a story, the characters, events, and even settings may change to fit the stage Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves The Runaway Tortilla production. The playwright may change a character’s thoughts into events and actions that happen on stage. Additional scenes and The Gingerbread Man Kate and the Beanstalk characters may be added or cut to make the story the best play it can be. There are many adaptations of fairy tales in books, movies, and plays. The Frog Prince CinderElmo adapt: to change to fit a new use or situation Jack and the Beanstalk Ali Baba and the 40 Aliens WRITE YOUR OWN FAIRY TALE Fairy tales are types of folk tales. They usually begin with “Once upon a time…” and end with “…happily ever after.” Also, fairy tales usually have events happening in threes, and involve magic. Folk tales are short, with a simple plot. They have characters that represent a characteristic (like good or bad) and feature events that are repeated, especially in threes. They are also based in fantasy. Use the template below to start writing your very own fairy tale. Once upon a time, there was a who lived in a . But there was a mean who always . So one day the decided to . There was a magic that ! After that, . Then, the never . And they lived happily ever after. The End ONLINE Fairy tales are just one type of interesting story. Try your own at: kidzone.ws/creative-writing/fairy-tales.htm TOUR.VIRGINIAREP.ORG ©2018 Virginia Repertory Theatre THE SHOEMAKER AND THE CHRISTMAS ELVES | 3 A Closer Look at the Elves STUDY GUIDE Complete the table. Show how many boots the What if the elves had made 1 pair of boots the first elves made on nights 1 through 10. night, 3 pairs the second night, 9 pairs the third night, and 27 pairs the next night? How many pairs NUMBER OF NIGHT of boots would they have made on the sixth night? BOOTS MADE NUMBER OF PAIRS 1 2 NIGHT OF BOOTS MADE 2 4 1 1 3 8 2 3 4 16 3 9 5 4 27 6 5 7 6 8 1. What pattern do you see? 9 When the shoemaker and his wife made new shoes 10 for the elves, they put 6 buttons on each shoe. How many buttons did they need for 1, 2, 3, and 4 pairs 1. What pattern do you see? of shoes? NUMBER NUMBER OF BUTTONS OF SHOES 1 2. Use a calculator to find out how many pairs of 6 boots the elves made in total. 2 3 4 Answer #2: 1,023 pairs of boots. of pairs 1,023 #2: Answer TOUR.VIRGINIAREP.ORG ©2018 Virginia Repertory Theatre THE SHOEMAKER AND THE CHRISTMAS ELVES | 4 Cues at the Theatre STUDY GUIDE VIRGINIA REPERTORY THEATRE Phil Whiteway Managing Director When you are in an audience at Nathaniel Shaw Artistic Director The Shoemaker and the Christmas Elves, or any play, pay attention VIRGINIA REP ON TOUR to the following: Amber Martinez Cue Arts in Education Manager 1) Command given by stage management to [email protected] the technical departments. Gordon Bass 2) Any signal (spoken line, action or count) Tour Manager that indicates another action should follow Eric Williams Director of Tour Operations House Lights The auditorium lighting, which is commonly Virginia Repertory Theatre faded out when the performance starts. 114 W. Broad St. Richmond, Virginia 23220 Blackout 800.235.8687 The act of turning off (or fading out) VIRGINIAREP.ORG stage lighting Curtain Call This study guide is the property of Virginia Rep. At the end of a performance, Photocopying of the study the acknowledgment of applause guide is permitted. Any other by actors — the bows. use of the contents must be accompanied by the phrase, “Text used with permission Build / Check from Virginia Repertory Build is a smooth increase in sound or light Theatre, Richmond, VA.” level; check is the opposite — a smooth diminishment of light or sound. Fade An increase, decrease, or change in lighting or sound. TOUR.VIRGINIAREP.ORG ©2018 Virginia Repertory Theatre THE SHOEMAKER AND THE CHRISTMAS ELVES | 5.